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Science policy news weekly roundup: October 7, 2016

The ASBMB’s Public Affairs Department encourages all readers of the Policy Blotter to alert the office about interesting and relevant articles. Please send tips to astothert@asbmb.org.

In our politically charged environment, there aren’t many issues Republicans and Democrats have bipartisan agreement on, including climate change. Democrats agree with climate scientists, whereas Republicans tend to be more skeptical. However, there are a few areas both sides agree on, including support for increased roles for scientists in policy-making efforts and research into renewable energy sources. In the article below, ASBMB Public Affairs Director Ben Corb is quoted.

The lack of discussion about science policy and research during the first presidential and vice presidential debates is especially troubling because the progress of the U.S. is directly linked to advances and innovations in the fields of medicine, technology and engineering.

Last week, Congress passed a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded, and in that package was $1.1 billion in emergency funding for dealing with the Zika virus. This approval had many in the scientific community breathing a sigh of relief, despite the amount of time it took for Congress to appropriate emergency funds. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has outlined how it will spend the money, including increased mosquito surveillance, vaccine development and refunding programs from which funds had been borrowed to combat Zika while Congress argued for the better part of a year. The scientific community hopes these emergency funds will lead to the development of a vaccine against this virus, however, many realize it could take years for the full extent of this pandemic to be realized.